Sales Gives Team A Little Somthing Special

Owen Canfield

November 28, 1994|By OWEN CANFIELD; Courant Sports Columnist

STORRS — The UConn women's basketball team was 80 points better than Morgan State Saturday in the opening round of The Courant Connecticut Classic at Gampel Pavilion, and Sunday, in winning the championship, it was 33 points better than Rhode Island.

Neither score (107-27 and 92-59) reflects aberrance. The Huskies are incredibly talented, better than last season because almost all the names are recognizable. Rebecca Lobo, Kara Wolters, Jen Rizzotti, Jamelle Elliott, Pam Webber and Kim Better are another year older with much more experience and even sharper skills than those that took them to the Big East championship and the NCAA final eight last spring.

Because they are tall, strong, familiar with each others' court habits and willing to work hard, Geno Auriemma's 10th UConn team is probably his best. Optimists, and there were 5,782 on hand Sunday for what they knew would probably be a 33-point game, even feel these Huskies could be the best team in the whole land. They like to think and dream about it, anyway. It costs nothing to do those things, and it's not like such thoughts are wildly unrealistic.

One whose name is not mentioned above, Nykesha Sales, could be the most important element in the mix, though as a freshman she does not have the advantage of college basketball experience.

She is fresh from a blazing career at Bloomfield High School. Freshmen have been known to step into college programs and become stars at the first center jump, but rare indeed are such prodigies. Experience at the Division I level, Auriemma says and most coaches agree, is essential before full potential can be realized in almost any player.

Almost. I'm not here to make that judgment about Sales, but after watching her for 23 minutes in one game [against Rhody], I am ready to shout that she is a show. A treat. One terrific player who, before she is through, will become --``one of the best ever to play in this country.''

Those are Auriemma's words, not mine. And when he was asked if maybe he was laying it on a little too thick when he spoke them, he said no, he wasn't. I paid attention to her for 23 active minutes, and then I spoke to her for two minutes and the coach will get no argument from me.

Sales came off the bench in the first half and was in the game when UConn broke from a 28-28 tie by scoring the final 14 points of the half.---- Meanwhile, the Rams missed 14 shots in succession.

Once on the court, Sales is not one to hang back. She exudes confidence. In 14 minutes, she hit a couple of three-point goals and 5 of 6 shots from the field. She had five rebounds, blocked a shot and stole the ball four times.

In the second half, she retreated a bit because the matchless Lobo had simply taken over and the rout was on. Oh, Sales in her nine second-half minutes, had the opportunity to flash some sleight of hand (a behind-the- back pass), block another shot, make another steal, but the rout was on and it didn't carry the drama of her first-half play.

Auriemma was asked what this new player can't do. ``If you were going to write a column about the things she can do, there wouldn't be room in the paper,'' he said. ``But if you wrote another about the things she can't do, there wouldn't be room either. But if I listed the things she doesn't do, it would sound like nitpicking.

Those ``can'ts'' he said, are all due to inexperience and have nothing to do with talent. ``She's not always sure what defense we're in,'' the coach said by way of vague explanation, adding: ``Can she take the ball and go around any other player? Yes, but she doesn't always do it.''

He almost glows, however, when he talks about Sales' ``can dos.''

``She has more imagination than anyone I've known,'' Auriemma said. ``You can see her mind working when she's playing. And she absorbs what I tell her. Very few players can take everything you say and use it constructively.''

There is an aura around Sales on the court that hints broadly that she could, and would love to, put on a dribbling, spinning basketball magic show. Auriemma discourages fancy-for-fancy's-sake, but sees nothing wrong with a bit of basketball legerdemain when it is necessary to produce two points.

``If you have to do something to get the ball on the rim,well, she'll do it,'' he said. And she won't be scolded for it.

Said Sales: ``I don't want to do it just to do it. Only if I have to. When I do, coach calls it `The Bloomfield Special.' But sometimes it's natural to do it. Just natural.''

Her abilities all through high school excited people and sometimes made their eyes pop. That will continue through college, it says here. And by the way, that's fine with her. She is accustomed to attention and comfortable with it.